You are here

Rape suspect turns self in

A Shelbyville mother of one spoke out Wednesday about a crime “that I never thought could happen to me” after the jailing of a former co-worker indicted for raping her one night late last year.

Timothy Lee Farliss, 30, also of Shelbyville, remained in the Maury County Jail Thursday in lieu of $75,000 bond after surrendering there Tuesday afternoon.

“He said he knew we had a warrant for him and just turned himself in,” said Maury County Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Diaz.

Farliss was indicted by the Maury County Grand Jury in late March for raping a 24-year-old woman after she reported a sexual assault that allegedly happened while she and Farliss were working on the roof of the Columbia Walmart in November.

The woman consented to be interviewed for this story but asked that she not be identified. Farliss declined to talk about the rape charge against him.

The two were co-workers for a Bedford County industrial services company assigned to clean the roof hood vent for the McDonald’s inside Walmart Nov. 25, police said.

“Mr. Farliss was the senior employee and he was more or less supervising the female employee,” said Columbia Police Detective Mike Richmond, who investigated the case. “They were the only two on the crew.

“This was the first time the two of them had worked alone together,” Richmond continued. “While up on the roof, Mr. Farliss was trying to get (the woman) to engage in sex and she didn’t want any part of that, and she’s claiming he forced his way upon her, or tried to.”

The alleged victim, a single mother of a 3-year-old boy, said the incident began when she and Farliss were going up to the roof sometime before midnight.

“He informed me that Walmart didn’t have any cameras on the roof, and smiled or whatever, and I told him he was crazy,” she said. “He always flirted with me, and we did sleep together one time — it just happened.

“I guess he thought we were going to do something on the roof because we were together, but I didn’t have any plans to do anything,” she continued. “We were at work.”

After walking to the ducts they were supposed to clean, “he came over to me and kissed me, which was fine. It was just a little kiss.”

But then the man she knew as “Lee” tried to force his hand into her pants, she said.

“I tried to tell him no and to stop but he wouldn’t listen,” she continued.

She said he pushed her against a retaining wall and unzipped her pants.

“I was telling him to stop and tried to push him off me,” she said, but Farliss sexually assaulted her. “I was finally able to get him off me, I don‘t know how. I was so happy. Then he backed up and asked me if I was mad, and I told him no because I didn’t want to upset him and end up being thrown off the Walmart roof.”

The woman said she made an excuse to leave the roof, called her employer and was given a ride home. She said she didn’t tell her employer what had happened, but she called Columbia police the next day to report the assault.

“She was able to provide us with the clothing, and he provided us with DNA samples,” Richmond said, adding that investigators are still awaiting lab results.

The case was presented to the grand jury, and it found the woman’s account “believable enough to issue an indictment against Mr. Farliss,” Richmond said. “I’m very pleased by that. I found her to be very believable, and Mr. Farliss was not very believable. We found inconsistencies in his story.”

The woman said she bagged the clothing she had been wearing during the alleged rape and turned it over to police because she had seen it done on TV crime shows.

“But I never thought this could happen to me,” she said.

She explained that she consented to be interviewed for this story in hopes that it will encourage other victims of sexual assault.

“Talking about this may help other women come forward,” she said.

Help for victims of sexual and domestic violence is available at Center of Hope, formerly known as Hope House, (931) 381-8580.

Farliss is scheduled to be in Maury County Circuit Court June 3 for arraignment on the rape indictment.

Rules for posting comments

Comments posted below are from readers. In no way do they represent the view of Stephens Media LLC or this newspaper. This is a public forum.

Comments may be monitored for inappropriate content but the newspaper is under no obligation to do so. Comment posters are solely responsible under the Communications Decency Act for comments posted on this Web site. Stephens Media LLC is not liable for messages from third parties.

IP and email addresses of persons who post are not treated as confidential records and will be disclosed in response to valid legal process.

Do not post:

Potentially libelous statements or damaging innuendo.

Obscene, explicit, or racist language.

Copyrighted materials of any sort without the express permission of the copyright holder.

Personal attacks, insults or threats.

The use of another person's real name to disguise your identity.

Comments unrelated to the story.

If you believe that a commenter has not followed these guidelines, please click the FLAG icon below the comment.